$2.76 Million Verdict for Widow and Estate After Defective Axle Killed Ohio Motorcyclist

On the evening of May 8, 2011, James Worman, 63, and his wife Pamela were riding his self-assembled 1973 Honda trike east on State Route 18 near Cecil, Ohio. The right rear axle shaft fractured without warning. The tire pulled free, the trike careened into a roadside ditch, and both riders were thrown from the vehicle.

James suffered catastrophic spinal injuries that left him paralyzed from the chest down. He never fully recovered and died of his injuries on June 17, 2012. Pamela sustained fractures to her legs, arms, and ribs and required five surgeries.

The axle shaft had come from Hart's Machine Service, Inc., a Cecil-area shop. When James ordered the part, Hart's did not stock it. Instead of sourcing it from a recognized manufacturer, Hart's had the part fabricated by an individual who owed the company money. That fabricator, Michael Jarzembski, produced an axle that was never heat-treated or induction-hardened, two standard processes that give steel axle shafts the strength and fatigue resistance required for road use. The part went out the door and into service with no testing and no disclosure that it fell short of industry standards.

Gary Cowan and Kimberly Young of Elk and Elk Co., Ltd. tried the case on behalf of Pamela Worman and Carl Wright, as personal representative of James Worman's estate. Cowan presented metallurgical evidence showing that the axle lacked the hardening properties any competent supplier should have verified before selling the part as road-worthy. The theory of liability was breach of implied warranty under the Ohio Products Liability Act: Hart's, as a supplier, warranted the axle fit for its intended purpose, and the unfinished fabrication it provided was not.

On May 6, 2015, the jury returned a verdict of $2,761,228.15. The jury awarded Pamela Worman $1.33 million in compensatory damages for her own injuries and allocated $1.42 million to James Worman's survivorship and wrongful death claims. The award was reported as the largest jury verdict in Fulton County history at the time.

Hart's appealed. On June 30, 2016, a unanimous three-judge panel of the Ohio Sixth District Court of Appeals affirmed the verdict in full. Hart's then sought review by the Ohio Supreme Court, which declined the appeal in February 2017, leaving the $2.76 million judgment intact.